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Symbols And Motifs In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

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The Character Evolution Of Jeff and the Realizations he Faces
Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a film full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcock’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye initially sees when viewing this film, there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing. The film first starts out with the protagonist’s view of what is going on around him through the use of binoculars. Jeff is a photographer, so his natural instinct is to view others through a lenses. These binoculars act as his sight as Jeff is confined to a wheelchair due to breaking his leg from an accident. As he is …show more content…

The lack of communication has lead everyone in the community to struggle with relationships. Jeff himself is in a committed relationship with a woman named Lisa. The dilemma he faces is the idea or marriage. When he looks through the window at the unhappy couple my interpretation is that he feels as if it could be a strong representation of what Lisa and him could be in the future. Early on in the film Stella, Jeff’s nurse explains that “People nowadays look too deeply into relationships.” This concept that Stella explains relates to many of the neighbors as well. You have Mrs. Lonelyhart who instead of struggling with a current relationship, couldn’t find one to begin with. And because she kept over thinking the fact that she was lonely it drove her to almost commit suicide. You then have Jeff that fails to realize what a wonderful woman Lisa is. This is shown through Jeff’s conversation with his

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Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window has several themes. One major theme is relationships. The lead character, Jeff Jeffries, a photographer and committed bachelor, is involved in a relationship with Lisa Fremont, a model, although the relationship has some tension due to Jeff’s lack of commitment. When Jeff is confined to his apartment recovering from a broken leg, he begins spying through his rear window on his neighbors in a nearby apartment. Through her frequent visits, Lisa is drawn into this spying as well.

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[a] Boorstin’s “Three Eye Theory” is the theory that the common viewer watches every film three different ways at the same time. These three “eyes” are called the Voyeur’s eye, the Vicarious eye, and the Visceral eye. The Voyeur’s eye is the observation of the film; it is own mind trying to understand and interpret what we see. It is logical and reflective. It “sees” the logic of the film.

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Rear Window Argues that people should mind their own business. Do you agree? Rear Window, a 1954 romance/murder-mystery by the renowned golden age director Alfred Hitchcock, is a film that explores a multitude of themes and genres through the voyeuristic gaze of protagonist L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies, or ‘Jeff’ as he commonly known throughout the film, is a middle-aged bachelor recently hospitalised due to his high-risk career as a photojournalist. This hindered condition serves as an important foundation on which the movie is built upon as Jeff’s forced lifestyle being in a wheelchair causes an abrupt stop in his usual high intensity way of life and causes him to quench his boredom in other ways, predominantly watching the other residents in his apartment complex through the ‘rear window’ of his apartment.

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“We’ve become a nation of peeping toms,” states James Stewart’s nurse, played by Thelma Ritter, in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window. Ritter’s comment ironically foreshadows events later in the film, but simultaneously provides a critique of the voyeuristic nature of cinema itself. Rear Window’s marketing campaign and public reception both center on the notion of ‘peeping,’ but present differing standpoints on Hitchcock’s exhibition and apparent promotion of the morbid curiosity at the root of human nature during the era of post-war paranoia. A theme often apparent in Hitchcock films is the idea of lost identity, a concept that can easily contribute to obsessive fear, which was not an unfamiliar sensation for American citizens during

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The idea of similarities among all people, an underlying connection, is expressed by Hitchcock when Lisa in Rear Window argues with Jefferies, saying, “There can't be that much difference between people and the way they live! We all eat, talk, drink, laugh, sleep, wear clothes --“. When she says this, Lisa has a lamp light shining from the upper right side of the screen to indicate the truth of her argument. There is also an instance in Rear Window where the ability to understand a person sprouts empathy. Jefferies is sitting in the dark, after Lisa leaves angry, when the piano man comes home.

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Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a fillm full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcok’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye anitially sees when viewing this film there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.

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It also holds a message about ‘reality’. From time to time, we are all like Jeff, secretly intruding other people’s private lives, whether it be those of our neighbours or by watching a film. The Film also skilfully portrays the issue of male gaze. Lisa’s role in the film, though she is an independent and successful woman, still serves for the purposes of male gaze. Even though she was a willing active participant, Jeff’s interest in her sparked when she embraced his point of view, took part in his own “subjective narrative” and became an object of his

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In 1953 Hitchcock signed a new deal with Paramount for several features, beginning with Rear Window (1954). Paramount introduced VistaVision process with White Christmas on October 14, 1954 ten weeks after the opening of Rear Window. VistaVision was introduced as an answer to the technical innovation of CinemaScope propriety to Twentieth Century-Fox and to entice audience to the theatre in the 1950s. The other films that borne out of Paramount deal were: To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Much of Hitchcock’s work in the 1940s scathingly criticises social proprieties and bourgeois sensibilities and in the 1950s took a softened tone when he worked for the big studios and kept in his

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She argues that the act of moviegoing satisfies these voyeuristic desires in people. She writes, “The mass of mainstream film portray a hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic fantasy,” (pg. 186). In this essay, I will further discuss her viewpoints on cinema and voyeurism, and how it connects to the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that follows the

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In the end, other than actually sitting down and having a conversation with her, we really do not know exactly what was on in this woman’s mind. However, it is safe to assume that there is more to a person than what we see. In “Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck tells a story about a woman named Elisa Allen who seems to be happy (since she has a nice home, husband, and a beautiful garden), but we realize that there is more to Elisa than meets the eye. Elisa, who seems to be happy, is in all actuality not happy at all. And we see this unhappiness with not only her dissatisfaction of being a housewife, and with the fact that she does not have control over her own life, but also with the introduction of the “Tinker Man” who reminds her what true happiness feels

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The film 's protagonist L.B Jefferies is characterised as a man who diverts himself from what is expected of him. His dislike for marriage and his desire to remain independent isolates him from the rest of society. When Stella is conversing with Jeff about his relationship with Lisa Freemont, Hitchcock exhibits the constraints of society 's expectations. The fact that Jefferies does 'not want to ' get married to Lisa is considered 'abnormal ' in Stella 's eyes, indicates the normalisation of marriage during 1954. Jefferies ' isolation from society 's view of marriage is utilised by Hitchcock in order to critique the way in which society pushes others to conform.

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These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

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Alfred Hitchcock used various symbols throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewer to get an insight of what is happening in the film. Symbolism is an exceptional way to entice the viewer as it creates suspense and makes it better to understand the film. Alfred uses paintings as a symbol, which can be seen in multiple scenes, to symbolize a certain character in the film to the painting and foreshadow events in the film. This allows the viewer to get more detail on the character’s personality and what is about to happen.

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